Moynihan on March 14 panel about free speech on campus

La Follette School Director and Professor Don Moynihan is one of five panelists participating in a public discussion about free speech on college campuses Wednesday, March 14. The Capital Times is sponsoring the event at Madison’s Central Library, 201 W. Mifflin St., from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Leslie Bow, a UW–Madison professor of English and Asian American Studies, and three UW–Madison students also will participate in Free Speech on Campus — What Should the Limits Be. Higher education reporter Pat Schneider will moderate the panel.

In October 2017, the UW System Board of Regents adopted a Commitment to Academic Freedom and Freedom of Expression policy after protesters interrupted presentations by conservative commentators at UW–Madison and elsewhere. The protests and subsequent policy prompted heated discussion.

Conservative students and faculty say a “politically correct” campus culture threatens their First Amendment rights and seeks to silence dissent, while others say the larger society’s embrace of “hate speech” is part of a system intended to subjugate people of color and other marginalized groups and that it shouldn’t be sanctioned on campus or anywhere else.

Students joining Moynihan and Bow on the panel are: • Ricardo Cortez de la Cruz, activist• Madeline Heim, editor in chief of The Daily Cardinal• Jake Lubenow, chair of College Republicans of UW-Madison